Why aren't there any affordable Daqu sauce-flavored Baijiu?

As a commodity, the price of Baijiu depends on various factors such as the brand influence of the product, market supply and demand, and the competitive strategies of enterprises. However, the main reason why sauce-flavor Baijiu is expensive is due to its complex production process and slightly higher brewing costs.

I often see some sauce wines priced as low as 9.9 yuan on Taobao, flaunting the name of sauce wines; I also frequently receive phone calls from people selling sauce wines, claiming that their wine is produced in Maotai Town and has the same quality as Moutai liquor, but the price is ridiculously cheap. As an insider, I naturally consider these as harassing calls, but many friends around me, due to their limited understanding, are inevitably swayed by the price and still inquire whether the wine is genuine. Every time, the editor of Moutai Sealed-Jar Wine only warns with one sentence: There is no cheap Daqu sauce-aroma white wine.

Production cost of 01 sauce-flavored Baijiu

The Daqu sauce liquor produced in Maotai Town undergoes two grain-feeding processes, nine steaming and boiling steps, eight fermentation cycles, and seven distillation rounds, spanning a full year of production. It is then stored for three years before being used for blending, bottling, and finalizing before leaving the factory.

Using high-quality sorghum as raw material, wheat-made high-temperature Daqu is used as saccharifying and fermenting agent. The sorghum is locally produced glutinous sorghum, commonly known as Hongyingzi sorghum, with solid and plump grains, small size and thick skin, and a high-quality sorghum with a branched chain starch content of 88% or more. This sorghum is costly, and only 100 grams of sorghum can produce 100 grams of wine. In addition, wheat-made Daqu requires 3 to 5 months of processing.

The fermentation cellar used for sauce-flavored Baijiu is a stone-built fermentation pit. After each distillation, the distillers' grains are collected, spread out, cooled, and then piled up for fermentation. Once the fermentation outside the pit is complete, the mixture is put back into the pit for further fermentation. After several such processes, the mixture in the pit ferments, and then the Baijiu can be produced.

Lai Mao liquor reminds us that a batch of fermented and matured mixture needs to undergo 8 rounds of fermentation before the liquor is produced. This is what we call "nine steaming, eight fermenting, and seven distilling".

After about a year, the base liquor is considered to be produced. However, the liquor at this stage is not ready to drink. After several distillation processes, different stages of Baijiu are produced, which need to be stored separately. The head liquor should be stored together, and the tail liquor should be stored together, without mixing. The process of storing these raw liquors is called "storage", and it takes three years. Only after three years can the liquor be taken out for blending. The difference in taste among various brands of liquor lies in the next process: blending and flavoring. After completion, the liquor is put into jars and sealed. It needs to be stored for one full year before it is considered mature.

The cost of aged 02 sauce-flavored Baijiu

But can you drink good wine in just five years? No, you can't! If you just blend with a batch of newly produced wine, it can't be called good wine at all because the taste is too fresh. To make the taste mellow, you must use aged wine.

Generally speaking, without a base liquor that has been stored for five years, it cannot be considered a good liquor. Now the problem arises. If brewers want to drink delicious sauce-flavored Baijiu, they need liquor that was produced five years ago. So, when did the liquor that was produced five years ago start brewing? A distillery without a ten-year brewing history can only purchase aged liquor from other distilleries. However, such aged liquor comes at a high cost.

03 Other investments

For a winery of a certain scale, the annual expenses on environmental protection, sewage discharge, water and electricity, coal, as well as labor wages, taxes, cellar fees, etc., do you think the real sauce-flavored liquor on the market can be cheap?

Besides the reminder about Maotai sealed-jar liquor, there are also packaging costs, labor costs, distribution costs, and so on. These factors collectively determine the "high price" of sauce-flavored Baijiu.